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REACH Camp Profile

Gendrassa Camp, Maban County, Upper Nile State

March 16, 2013 BACKGROUND

Due to wide scale flooding and limited potable water in

Jamam camp, Gendrassa camp was established in July 2012

as an alternative location. Refugees were relocated from the

worst flooded areas of Jamam to Gendrassa between July

2012 and October 2012. Some areas of the originally planned

camp borders of Gendrassa have also been shown to be

flood prone; because of this the full planned capacity of

Gendrassa camp (20,000 people) was never reached. As of

March, 2013 the population of Gendrassa camp is 15,815.

The majority of refugees living in Gendrassa camp are of the

Ingessana tribe, who originated in northern Bau County, Blue

Nile state, Sudan. The northernmost point in the Ingessana

territory is approximately 200 kilometers from the border

crossing point. Most of the refugees crossed at Al Fodj, which

is an additional approximately 60 km from Jamam camp.

Gendrassa camp is located approximately 70km from Jamam

and 3km from Yusif Batil Camp. Doro refugee camp is also

located 20km from the camp, with Bunj town, the capital of

Maban located between the two areas of the refugee camps.

There are a number of small host community settlements that

surround Gendrassa camp which together are known as

Gendrassa village.

A map of the Maban County refugee camps is attached as

Annex 1.

Demographics

Gendrassa is primarily comprised of three of the four total

sub-tribes from the Ingessana: Kukur, Fadamia, and Bau and

2 other tribes, Jum Jum and Magaja, which are represented

on a smaller scale in the camp. The leader of the Ingessana

is called the Nassir, who accompanied his people to Maban

County and lives in Gendrassa camp. The four sub-tribes of

the Ingessana are led by Umdas and are further divided into

smaller groups, led by a sheikh. The sheikhs represent a

population of 50-200 households. Among other duties, the

Sheikhs and Umdas represent the interests of his population

to Camp Management and other camp actors. The village

boundaries in Gendrassa camp, with few exceptions, match

the boundaries of the sheikhdom within the camp.

Gendrassa was originally planned with populations settled

according to village and sub-tribe in blocks. During relocation,

ACTED teams pitched tents within the block designated for

each group. Over time, many households have moved their

tents, sometimes outside of the originally demarcated blocks

and sometimes outside the camp boundary altogether. Those

households outside the camp boundaries are often further

from services, such as water and the distribution site.

Figure 1 Demographic Information – Gendrassa Camp

Total Population 15,815 individuals

Total Tents 3,650

Total Villages 31

Average Family Size 4.3

During registration, the following vulnerable households were identified:

Households with disabled persons

271 (5.9%)

Households with elderly persons

208 (6.1%)

Unaccompanied minors 54 (1.6%)

Orphans 4 (0.1%)

Households with identified vulnerabilities face additional

challenges. Efforts are underway to ensure that these

household are able to access all needed services, including

latrine and water points, transport their ration during the

general food distribution (GFD), and receive any additional

medical assistance as needed.

Local Government Relations

Tensions between NGOs and the local government continue

over the large amount of construction materials required by

NGO activities. In recent weeks, there has been evolving

legal restrictions regarding obtaining wood poles, marram,

and grass for Tukul and fence construction. The large need

for construction material in Kaya has placed additional stress

on the ongoing needs for construction materials in Gendrassa

and other camps and has required establishing new protocol

for obtaining these construction materials. The recent issues

with receiving poles has caused delays in decommissioning

full latrines and constructing new latrines in the camp. An

agreement has been reached regarding tax payment on

marram transport and poles, relieving these issues for the

time being.

Recently, the Government of South Sudan passed the

Refugee Act, which grants refugees the right to work. This will

allow NGOs, who were previously required to hire either host

community members or relocate other South Sudanese

applicants as staff to begin putting refugees on contract..

Phase 3 Registration

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The Gendrassa camp population has already undergone

Phases 1 and 2 registrations. These processes collected

basic demographic information about the population, family

sizes, current address, address of origin, and vulnerabilities.

Phase 3 will add fingerprints to the database to prevent

double-registration of households. In addition, households will

be re-interviewed and any changes or earlier errors in the

database will be corrected. The exercise is anticipated to take

place in Gendrassa camp in March and April.

Camp Capacity

During the relocation from Jamam to Gendrassa it was

discovered that some planned areas of Gendrassa were

flood-prone. Because it was not advisable to relocate

refugees from one flood-prone area to another, the capacity

of Gendrassa was decreased. Therefore some communities

remain split between the camps. This is a continuing concern

for those communities, who would like to be reunited. It is not

clear, at the time, how that can be done while avoiding

relocation to a flood-prone area.

An expansion of Gendrassa has been discussed, however

these plans are on hold for the time being as attention has

been turned to planning for the new Kaya site, which will

house the remaining Jamam camp population and some of

the Doro camp population to relieve overcrowding.

Refugee and Host Community Relations

Although no major incidents have been reported recently,

tension between host and refugee communities remains a

major concern due largely to competition for limited natural

resources (for example water, firewood, and grazing land).

Conflict is particularly likely during the dry season, as hafirs

located near the camps begin to evaporate and livestock is

left having to travel farther for water and grazing land.

Efforts to map grazing lands are ongoing. With accurate maps

of both refugee and host community grazing land, it is hoped

that potential areas of conflict can be identified and mitigated.

In the past, conflict has occurred over deforestation of Maban

County and dwindling ready supplies of fire wood as both

refugees and the host community search for energy sources.

There is a collective of women making energy-efficient stoves

in order to decrease firewood consumption, however currently

few people have the disposable income to purchase the

stoves.

Health

There is one Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital, one

International Medical Corps (IMC) Hospital, and two IMC

clinics in Gendrassa camp. The clinics and hospitals are

dispersed throughout the camp so as to provide access for as

many individuals as possible. The locations of medical

facilities within the camps are attached as Annex 2.

The outbreak of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) remains a major

concern for all refugee camps in Maban County, including

Gendrassa. Although the outbreak has recently been

declining in other camps, the number of newly diagnosed

cases continues to increase in Gendrassa camp. There were

89 new diagnosed cases in the second week of March, up

from 50 average weekly new cases in the first six weeks of

2013. No cure or vaccine is available for HEV, prevention is

the only option for decreasing the number of cases. Water,

Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH) and Health actors

in Maban County are working to increase hand washing

points, monitoring the chlorine levels in potable water, and

conducting sensitization campaigns to try to halt the outbreak.

One case of measles and one case of meningitis were

diagnosed in Gendrassa camp in early March. Communities

have been encouraged to bring children and adults with

symptoms of either illness to the camp clinics as early as

possible in the hopes of preventing any larger outbreak. A

house to house polio vaccination campaign, initiated by the

South Sudan Ministry of Health and the World Health

Organization, will occur in Gendrassa camp between March

19 and March 22. The campaign will target all children under

the age of five, which represents 21% of the population.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Promotion (WASH)

As of the first week of March, the average daily water

provision per person was 36 liters per day. As this level is

relatively plentiful, measures are being taken to ensure that

children are not playing in available water. 98% of the camp

population lives within 500m of a tap stand, in keeping with

the SPHERE standard for sanitation. Water coverage is

shown in the map attached as Annex 3. There are a total of

30 tap stands in the camp.

As of early March, there was one latrine for every 19

individuals. Feminine hygiene kits were distributed to 3,348

women and girls aged 14 to 45 during the first week of March.

Over 16,299 bars of 600 grams of soap were distributed.

Currently, in Gendrassa ten donkey carts operate in the camp

collecting solid waste from bins throughout the camp. The

donkey cart then transports waste to a landfill nearby.

Separately, three teams of four persons collect animal waste

throughout the camp three days per week. An animal waste

disposal site is being planned, currently teams burn

carcasses in a designated location outside of the camp. As

the below chart illustrates, since the beginning of 2013 the

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number of animal carcasses burned per week were very low.

Due to conflict with agriculturalists and host community

pastoralists, refugee herders have taken their herds further

from the camps. However, herders return to the camps

multiple times per week to water their herds at the nearby

hafirs, or water points.

Figure 3 Number of animals burnt in Gendrassa Camp per

week beginning in 2013

Education

As of the fourth week of January, there were nine schools in

Gendrassa camp with a total of 51 classrooms. The schools

offer pre-school, primary school, and adult education. After

classes, the schools become child friendly spaces with age-

appropriate activities. The schools are currently out of session

but will begin again in April. There are 1,272 students

attending pre-school classes and 492 adults attending English

language courses. All teachers are selected from the refugee

community and receive training pedagogy, child protection,

and other relevant subjects by the Ministry of Education and

NGO partners.

Twenty eight students from Gendrassa camp completed the

South Sudan Primary 8 National Exams in February. Before

testing, classes were offered in English primary one and

primary two and in Arabic for Primary three through eight. The

curriculum is established by the Government of South Sudan.

This is the standardized exam for all primary school students

in South Sudan to pass from primary to secondary school.

In addition, a vocational training center (VTC) has recently

begun operation in Gendrassa. Participating students will be

trained in either tailoring, metal working, carpentry, or

construction. They will also be given training in establishing

their business once trained.

Food Distribution

Food rations in Gendrassa camp are distributed monthly from

a central distribution point. The food distribution point was

located to be as accessible as possible to the camp as it was

at the time of constructions. However, with one centralized

distribution point, tents located at the boundaries of the camp

are still some distance away. Currently, 3,395 of 3,518 total

tents mapped or 96.5% are located within 2 km of the

distribution site. The remaining 123 (3.5%) tents are located

from 2-2.5 km from the distribution site. A map of the

distribution distances is attached as Annex 4.

The per person ration of food for a month is 16.67 kg of

sorghum, 1.5 kg of lentils, .17 kg salt, and 1.17 liters of oil.

For an average family size of 4 persons, this means

transporting 66.68 kg sorghum, 6 kg lentils, .68 kg salt, and

4.68 liters oil. Although it is likely that a larger family size will

have more family members to assist in transporting the food

ration, if there are small children or a spouse unable or

unwilling to help, transporting over 70 kg of food for a family

of four up to 3 km can be quite difficult. Donkey cart

transportation services are available from private enterprises,

however the payment is generally a portion of the sorghum

ration. Efforts are being made to provide the particularly

vulnerable households (those without able-bodied adults to

transport food) with a free donkey cart or tractor service.

REACH

REACH was formed in 2010 as a joint initiative of two INGOs (ACTED and IMPACT Initiatives) and a UN program (UNOSAT). The purpose of REACH is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s capacity to make decisions and plan in emergency, reconstruction and development contexts. At country level, REACH teams are deployed to countries experiencing emergencies or at-risk-of-crisis in order to facilitate interagency collection, organisation and dissemination of key humanitarian related information. Country-level deployments are conducted within the framework of partnerships with individual actors as well as aid coordination bodies, including UN agencies, clusters, inter-cluster initiatives, and other interagency initiatives.

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Annex 1: Map of Maban County Maps

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Annex 2: Gendrassa Camp Medical Facilities

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Annex 3: Gendrassa Water Coverage

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Annex 4: Distance from Distribution Point in Gendrassa